Writing Prompts for Getting Started
Though every step toward a desire counts, the first step is special. A first step, by definition, involves heading somewhere different. And no matter what we’re writing, writing it has the potential to change things. So experiencing a degree of performance pressure, getting stuck in the pause before initiating movement and change, is understandable. Beginnings are momentous.
“Creativity is a type of learning process
where the teacher and pupil
are located in the same individual.”
(often attributed to) Arthur Koestler
A trick about beginnings is to be a beginner. Rather than beginning to write from a place of already knowing everything you’ll be writing about, try beginning to write as a student, learning as you go.
When entered willingly, the space where learning and teaching coexist in the same person has the power to pull creativity out of thin air. Begin simply, by noticing what you don’t know (“I don’t know how to organize my thoughts” or “I don’t know where this will lead”), then experiment, trying out different things to teach yourself what you need to know. Learn as you go. Teach as you learn.
Begin, learn, teach. Begin, learn, teach. Begin, learn, teach.
This method of creating has been around since Grog burnt himself then taught Glug how to make a fire without burning himself. It’s been around for so long because it works.
Here are a few prompts to help with beginning to write and create as a student:
What sparked your desire to write this?
Why do you care about this?
Who do you want to care about this?
What questions are you beginning with?
List three things you know about this.
List three things you don’t know about this but wish you did.
What evidence is there that you know something about this?
If you assume wisdom comes through you, what does it want to say?
If a bright-eyed, eager student sat beside you, what would you want to tell them?
How have you learned about this topic you want to write about?
What do you hope will change because of your writing?
What do you imagine the last step, finishing, will feel like?
===
Grace Kerina is the author of Personal Boundaries for Highly Sensitive People and other resources for quiet people. She has more than twenty years of experience helping writers and other creators find their true voices. Get her free ebook 7 Liberating Life Hacks for Highly Sensitive People when you subscribe to her newsletter. She also writes novels as Alice Archer.